[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 1, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S2535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Attorney General William Barr

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as we speak, Attorney General William 
Barr is testifying before a hearing in front of the Judiciary 
Committee.
  There may not be a member of this administration with more to answer 
for than the current Attorney General, and that is a pretty high bar. 
His confirmation occurred only a few months ago. Yet, in a short time, 
Mr. Barr's conduct has raised damning questions about his impartiality 
and about his fitness.
  Just last night we learned that Special Counsel Mueller sent a 
private letter more than a month ago to the Attorney General that took 
issue with Mr. Barr's early description of the Russia investigation's 
conclusions.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter dated 
March 27, 2019, to Mr. Barr.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                       U.S. Department of Justice,


                                 The Special Counsel's Office,

                                   Washington, DC, March 27, 2019.
     Re Report of the Special Counsel on the Investigation Into 
         Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election 
         and Obstruction of Justice (March 2019).

     Hon. William P. Barr,
     Attorney General of the United States, Department of Justice, 
         Washington, DC.
       Dear Attorney General Barr: I previously sent you a letter 
     dated March 25, 2019, that enclosed the introduction and 
     executive summary for each volume of the Special Counsel's 
     report marked with redactions to remove any information that 
     potentially could be protected by Federal Rule of Criminal 
     Procedure 6(e); that concerned declination decisions; or that 
     related to a charged case. We also had marked an additional 
     two sentences for review and have now confirmed that these 
     sentences can be released publicly.
       Accordingly, the enclosed documents are in a form that can 
     be released to the public consistent with legal requirements 
     and Department policies. I am requesting that you provide 
     these materials to Congress and authorize their public 
     release at this time.
       As we stated in our meeting of March 5 and reiterated to 
     the Department early in the afternoon of March 24, the 
     introductions and executive summaries of our two-volume 
     report accurately summarize this Office's work and 
     conclusions. The summary letter the Department sent to 
     Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of 
     March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and 
     substance of this Office's work and conclusions. We 
     communicated that concern to the Department on the morning of 
     March 25. There is now public confusion about critical 
     aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens 
     to undermine a central purpose for which the Department 
     appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public 
     confidence in the outcome of the investigations. See 
     Department of Justice, Press Release (May 17, 2017).
       While we understand that the Department is reviewing the 
     full report to determine what is appropriate for public 
     release--a process that our Office is working with you to 
     complete--that process need not delay release of the enclosed 
     materials. Release at this time would alleviate the 
     misunderstandings that have arisen and would answer 
     congressional and public questions about the nature and 
     outcome of our investigation. It would also accord with the 
     standard for public release of notifications to Congress 
     cited in your letter. See 28 C.F.R. 609(c) (``the Attorney 
     General may determine that public release'' of congressional 
     notifications ``would be in the public interest'').
           Sincerely yours,
                                           Robert S. Mueller, III,
                                                  Special Counsel.

  Mr. SCHUMER. What a stunning indictment of the Attorney General, 
whose principal job in all of this was to make sure--to make sure--that 
he wasn't mischaracterizing or spinning results. This letter shows what 
an awful, awful Attorney General Mr. Barr has been so far. I will have 
more to say on this later.